Disappearance of Cherrie Mahan

Cherrie Ann Mahan (August 14, 1976 – disappeared February 22, 1985; declared legally dead November 5, 1998) was an eight-year-old American girl who disappeared on February 22, 1985, after disembarking a school bus approximately fifty feet from the base of the driveway to her home in rural Winfield Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania. She was declared legally dead in November 1998. Mahan's abduction is strongly believed not to have been committed by a family member.

Mahan's disappearance is one of the most infamous unsolved missing child cases in the United States. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children featured Mahan as the first missing child to be depicted upon postcards distributed nationwide alongside a headline reading, "Have You Seen Me?" Efforts to locate Mahan, alive or deceased, are ongoing.

Background Cherrie Ann Mahan was born in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, on August 14, 1976. Her mother, Janice Mahan, was just 16 at the time she gave birth to her daughter, which she later said had been a result of her being raped at age 15. Nonetheless, Janice doted on her daughter, who grew into a friendly, talkative child, later stating: "We were always together. We grew up together. She was my life". Janice later married a Vietnam veteran named LeRoy McKinney, who willingly accepted Mahan as his stepdaughter. In late 1984, the family relocated to Cornplanter Road in Butler County. Mahan attended Winfield Elementary School, where she was regarded as a bright, popular and happy child.

On Friday, February 22, 1985, the child was excited as her mother intended to take her on a play date when she returned from school. Mahan accompanied her mother to the bus stop located approximately fifty feet from the base of the uphill driveway to their home. When the school bus arrived, the two told each other they loved each other before Mahan boarded the bus.

Disappearance

Mahan was last seen exiting her school bus on Cornplanter Road on February 22, 1985. She alighted this bus with three friends at approximately 4:10 p.m. before her friends entered a car driven by the mother of one of the girls, Debbie Burk, who had followed the school bus in her own car. Mahan was then observed to walk past a bluish-green van which had parked near the bus stop and turn a corner to walk the approximately 150-yard uphill driveway to her home. The van would later be described as a 1970s-era Dodge (possibly a 1976 model ) with a distinctive mural depicting a skier traversing a snowcapped mountain painted on the side. Burk was the last individual to see Mahan before she was kidnapped. She was in height and had brown hair and hazel eyes. Mahan was wearing a gray coat, a blue denim skirt, a white leotard, blue leg warmers, beige boots, and Cabbage Patch earmuffs.

Mahan's stepfather, LeRoy McKinney, overheard the school bus slowing to a halt near his home. He later recollected he had intended to walk down the 150-yard driveway to meet his stepdaughter before his wife said: "No, it's a nice day. Let her walk." When ten minutes had elapsed and Mahan had not arrived, her mother and stepfather began to worry. A search of their driveway did not locate the child or any of her footprints upon the snow on the ground leading to her house,

Investigation Police immediately launched an intense search to locate Mahan. The terrain around her home was extensively searched with the assistance of bloodhounds and helicopters, and investigators conducted house to house inquiries. A thorough search of Butler County was bolstered by an estimated 250 local volunteers, although these searches failed to locate the child. Mahan's local community raised $39,000 as a reward for Mahan's safe return, (Shortly before her disappearance, Mahan had received a broken arm after being hit by a car.) She received $3,500 in compensation for her injuries.

Suspect vehicle

Appeals as to sightings of the distinctive bluish-green Dodge van produced eyewitnesses who informed investigators they had seen a vehicle matching this description in New Kensington, traveling in the direction of Mount Pleasant. Other witnesses stated they had seen a blue car following this van, and that the van was repainted black one or two weeks after Mahan's disappearance.

When no significant leads developed and the child had been missing for three months, a national direct mailing company printed a photograph of Mahan on postcards accompanied by the question "Have you seen me?" These cards were mailed to thousands of households across the U.S., placed inside telephone and utility bills, alongside an artist's rendition of the distinctive van seen in the vicinity of her abduction. (In 1985, approximately sixty-two percent of missing children in America were safely recovered.) This figure has since greatly increased. In 2000, a computer-generated rendition of how Mahan may have looked at age 23 was mailed to thousands of households across America. This line of inquiry failed to generate any significant leads. This spokesman declined to further elaborate, citing the ongoing investigation. However, investigators did state this "potentially crucial" information indicates Mahan is unlikely to still be alive.

A further line of inquiry investigators pursued dates from 2014, when investigators pursued a tip that Mahan was alive and living under an assumed name in Michigan. The individual named in this letter was a woman who had been adopted as a child and was unsure of her precise origins, although DNA testing

"I believe Cherrie was abducted by someone she knows very well, and I believe this person had the ability to basically lure Cherrie [into] their vehicle without her giving it a second thought prior to her disappearance ... I can't imagine if that was my child. I can't imagine the pain her mother must wake up with every day." — Pennsylvania State Police Officer Robert McGraw, referencing the ongoing investigation into Cherrie Mahan's disappearance. January 2011

Legal declaration Although existing laws had determined Cherrie Mahan could have been declared legally dead seven years after her disappearance, Mahan's mother only petitioned to have her daughter legally declared deceased in 1998. A Butler County judge approved a petition from Janice McKinney to do so in November that year.

Addressing the media following the conclusion of these legal proceedings, Janice McKinney stated: "When people die, you have a body. You kiss [them upon] the face, you put them in the ground, and you say goodbye ... that's something I never had. This is not over. We'll always look for Cherrie. If nothing else, she'll always be [alive] in our hearts."

Mother's theory Mahan's mother, Janice McKinney, has stated her conviction her daughter's disappearance can still be solved. In 2020, McKinney revealed her conviction that although she does not believe Cherrie's biological father was involved in her abduction, she believes individuals known to him were. Mahan's mother has stated that prior to her daughter's disappearance, nobody had believed her claims that her daughter had been conceived through her being raped,